In the morning, Brett and I both started a little later than expected. On the way to find both a bathroom and a dumpster Brett ran into a couple of kids on bikes riding around the campground. After breakfast, I went to use both the bathroom and dumpster myself and the same pack of kids found me. They didn't believe that we were not the same person. 'But he has a beard and glasses', I told them. Clearly that was a disguise. So I rode back to our site with them in tow to prove that Brett and I were not the same person. 'Are you brothers?' the lone boy in the pack asked. 'No,' Brett told them, 'just a couple guys who are both riding our bikes. 'Are you scientists?' the boy asked. 'Yes, we are scientists' 'Wow!'
I was then convinced to chase them around the park on their bikes. I gave them a head start and sure enough caught up to them. The boy shot out into paths between different campsites in the woods. They had been there for several days and he knew all the shortcuts. I eventually got the two older kids names, Mason and Angelina, after several bouts of chasing them around. At one point, I caught up to them with only my right foot clipped in and my left foot resting on Penny's top tube. So yes, I'm faster with one foot than a couple of pre-teens. I should be. I also liked to turn around and speed around the outer loop of the camp drive to suddenly appear in front of them.
Angelina didn't believe me that I was going from California to New York. 'You don't know how to get there', she explained. I showed her a picture of me in front of the golden gate bridge. 'Ok, you've been there', she told me. 'That doesn't mean you rode all the way here. Another Sacramento conspirator (there's a joke that I haven't really been going around the country, that I've spent this whole time in Sacramento photoshopping my bike into other people's pictures). I then chased them around some more. They showed me a tree with poisonous berries and they were shocked when I responded by popping one into my mouth and not dying. I showed them that mulberries were not only non-lethal, but tasty. You have to get the dark purple ones, the green and red ones are sour.
At some point in there, Brett had to get on the road. We invited each other to our respective cities of residence and he was off. Since he started the day later than he had expected, he had a lot of ground to cover before dark. Safe travels, my friend.
Eventually, I did need to get moving too, so went back to my site and started to pack up. Chasing the kids this morning was as much fun as anything else I've done on the trip. When I had Penny packed I rode back to their family's site, but didn't find anyone there. I left a note and my card. Thanks for the experience, guys! Keep biking!
I covered the couple hills between the park and the backside of the Canton-Akron airport. Since two of the city's storage spaces right behind the airport and I needed to store Penny somewhere for the weekend, I stopped in to the first one. The guy in the office seemed completely taken aback by the idea of riding a bike across the country, to the point where he didn't seem to comprehend what I only needed the space for the weekend, so didn't want to pay a full month rate. Since he didn't give me a better offer, I went to the other storage company a couple hundred yards down the road. I rode down the steep gravel drive to the office and found a sign saying back at 1:30. It was 12:45.
Fine, I'll go get a motel room for the night first. On the way around the airport into town, the battery in the gps died. This happens occasionally, though usually I replace them when it warns me they are down to 5%. I carry six pairs of rechargeable AAs and a pair usually lasts a day to a day and a half. But I had camped the last three nights, and while I've found places to recharge the phone, I haven't been so lucky with the batteries. All of my AAs were dead. I braved the increasingly heavy suburban traffic as I got closer to the interstate, stopping at the first gas station I found. Gatorade and batteries. I estimated the miles and time I covered and then pushed on down the hill to where the motels were. I eschewed the $110 room for the one less than half that across the street.
I unloaded and showered and decided what I needed to take with me for the weekend and to leave on the bike. I gave myself one of my front panniers as my carry on for the plane (the reason I did bring one shoulder strap). It was mostly my electronics, the book and food.
I rode back to the storage places and tried at the one that was closed. He told me that he wasn't going to be there Monday morning so I would need to have the code to open the gate. He didn't seem to understand that I was willing to pay him something to get the code. He suggested trying to leave it with the construction guys that took up the lot between the two storage spaces. 'They have dogs' he told me, reassuringly. Yeah, but 'hi construction crew that I don't know. Here's my bike and all my stuff, please don't go through it at your leisure in the three days I'll be gone'. Yeah, no.
I went back to the other place to see if perhaps someone else was in the office now. In fact, there was. There was a young lady named Dana behind the desk and her boyfriend wearing a Kent sweatshirt occupying a chair in the corner. I explained the whole bike tour + wedding in Boston situation to her and she was really excited to see what she could do for me. She called the owner and summarized the situation to them. Sure, she could charge me half price. With tax it came to $20 including a lock I could keep. That sounded great, and Dana was one of those random people I met whom I never would have otherwise and it was really cool to talk to her, especially since it saved me $20. It was strange suddenly not having the bike with me. Wherever I'd gone in the past two months, Penny was always there.
After that, I had some time to kill. At the battery gas station, I picked up a schedule for the Akron Areos, the local minor league baseball team. There was a home game tonight, so I could spend the night getting caught up on the journal, or I could go to a ball game. From the driveway of the storage space, I called the number of the car service that I got from the motel. A car could come and get me in about 45 minutes. Here was one of the times that I knew I was not in Brooklyn. I can call my car service from home and when they say they'll be there in 5 minutes, that's usually an overestimate. When I questioned the guy on the phone about his offer of 45 minutes, he told me 'Well, it's the first'. Oh yes, that explains it all. Learn this from my experience, people of the world. Don't try to call a cab in Canton on the first of the month.
I was, however, on the backside of an airport. Where there are airports, there are drivers waiting for fares, spending their idle time on fantasy baseball and telling their brothers in very scientific detail about the approaching weather patterns. It took about 35 minutes to walk the few miles around to the front of the airport. I approached a cab driver who was eating a sandwich. I asked how much it would be to take me to Akron, about 12 miles away. $40, she said. I countered with $30, to which she said I'd have to ask her guy. She pulled herself out of the door a little and called to the guy who was hanging out in the shade by the door. She explained that I wanted to get to the ballpark in Akron and pay $30. He thought about it a moment then assented.
We made it quickly down 77 to Akron and and exit and a left turn later were facing the ballpark. It didn't look like there was going to be a game in an hour. There was a parking lot attendant, so we pulled over to ask. No, not tonight. They're out of town till Tuesday. But the schedule! I didn't have it with me, so I couldn't wave it in anyone's face. I told the driver to take me then to my hotel in Canton. On the way I asked if he knew of any places around my hotel to get dinner. Not really, but he searched on his gps. I wanted a bar with good food so I could have a couple beers with my dinner. We pulled up to the place it had suggested and it was pretty obviously a topless bar. Not exactly what I had in mind. There was a pizza joint across the street, so I'd just grab a pizza and some beer on the walk back to the room.
The driver told me it would be $40 for the round trip. I gave him a $20 tip since he gave me a good price and I would have spent more than that getting back to Canton if there had been a game. He seemed shocked that someone would tip that much. It's true that I've never spent that much on not going to a baseball game. I went to bed pretty early because I needed to be at the airport by 6:30.
Day 63, Nimisila State Park - Castle Storage, Canton, OH
11.2 miles in 1:06:33 for a total of 3865.6 in 292:00:25 and a top speed of 31.7mph
Showing posts with label Week 9. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Week 9. Show all posts
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Mile 3854.4 - A completely unstressful day
I started the day needing to recharge my phone. For a good 45 minutes I sat reading under a tree near the laundry room on the campground while the phone was plugged in. A sticky patch of tree sap I didn't notice sitting down made it harder to stand up.
I had breakfast, and as I was cleaning up a gray-haired woman walked up and asked if I had ridden my bike in. Thus I met Kathy, a hiker who had plenty of cycling experience. We talked about my trip and hers, comparing war stories of rain and wind, and we looked at the map to get the local roads recommendation. We ended up talking until early afternoon, but as I did not have very far to go today, I was glad for the company. We had walked to her campsite then came back to mine; I found that a squirrel had ripped up/apart/through the bag of trash I had left on the picnic table. It didn't touch the pannier full of food that lay open five feet away from the table, but it sure did destroy the bag of trash. I gathered it up and deposited the mess in the dumpster. As I was getting ready to leave Kathy offered me some cash, the first time that's happened on this trip. It was not expected, but certainly appreciated.
My goal for the day was another state park that I could camp in just outside of Canton. From there, tomorrow I would get into Canton, find a motel and a storage space for Penny, so Friday morning I could fly to the wedding in Boston. I had just over 50 miles to go, not a taxing day at all.
Not far out of camp, I got to mile 3800, about 700 miles left to go to get back to Brooklyn. The first town I came to, I stopped for lunch. I found the Farmer Boy Restaurant, sat down and ordered and again plugged in the phone. It can go through a lot of battery in one day. I had my lunch and getting up to leave, one of the three seniors sitting at the table behind me asked if I was a cyclist of just dressed like one. I had the attention of every diner in the smallish room as I told them about my journey. The old man laughed and said he was impressed that young people still challenge themselves like that. He wished me luck as I left.
The day was a bit warmer than yesterday, on the humid side with only a half-hearted breeze. The hills were starting to get more serious, the warnings about what awaited me across the next state line. This was emphasized when I got up almost to 40mph for the first time since the black hills.
Traffic was getting more suburban and in a couple of spots, the shoulder was less ample than I would have liked. I made it down to Portage State Park and started to ride around looking for the camping area. I found the boat ramp, the picnic area, the playground, the beach. No camping area. Finally I asked an old man who I believe was dumpster diving if he knew where I could camp. He gave me directions to the park with the campground, about 7 miles around on the other side of the lake. The hills here seemed steeper and longer than most of the ones before, but at least I found bike lanes around the northern end of the lake.
Here it was pretty obvious where the campsites were. But I wouldn't have gone to the western side of the lake if I had known the campground was on the east. Anyway, I found a site and was soon encamped and making myself dinner. Across from my site was one of two tall tepees that one could rent. There was no way to get Penny inside the door, so I didn't even consider it. But I did go back later and check it out. Surprisingly roomy.
Dinner was some polska kielbsa I had picked up at a gas station an hour earlier. I should have grabbed some bread too, because all that good grease was just going to go to waste. I soaked it all up with a piece of paper towel which I threw into the firepit. That gave me an idea. I gathered some of the dryer sticks laying around and set them up with the paper towel in the center. It was really surprising how well a single oil laden piece of paper towel keeps a flame. Next time I'll try it with newspaper and used cooking grease.
I sat at the table back at my site and was reading as the light started to fade. I looked up and saw a guy on a bike roll by clearly looking for a spot. I jumped onto Penny and was just getting to the roadway when he turned around. He said he had noticed that there wasn't a car at my site and wanted to know if I wanted to split the site with him. Sure! This site was $20 as it was, so I wouldn't mind making back half of that and getting to hang out with a cyclist.
Brett is a resident of Austin, TX, but was currently riding his bike from Rochester NY to Bloomington, IN. He told me about his various long-distance trips he had taken, and I told him about the joys and struggles of my journey. He slung up what was basically a covered hammock among some trees. I wondered how this piece of camping equipment would work in the plains. We ended up talking long after darkness had settled. The next day was going to be the easiest scheduled of my trip and I settled into a comfortable night's sleep.
Day 62, Findley SP, OH - Nimisila Campground, OH
56.4 miles in 4:17:11 for a total of 3854.4 in 290:53:52 and a high speed of 38.1
I had breakfast, and as I was cleaning up a gray-haired woman walked up and asked if I had ridden my bike in. Thus I met Kathy, a hiker who had plenty of cycling experience. We talked about my trip and hers, comparing war stories of rain and wind, and we looked at the map to get the local roads recommendation. We ended up talking until early afternoon, but as I did not have very far to go today, I was glad for the company. We had walked to her campsite then came back to mine; I found that a squirrel had ripped up/apart/through the bag of trash I had left on the picnic table. It didn't touch the pannier full of food that lay open five feet away from the table, but it sure did destroy the bag of trash. I gathered it up and deposited the mess in the dumpster. As I was getting ready to leave Kathy offered me some cash, the first time that's happened on this trip. It was not expected, but certainly appreciated.
My goal for the day was another state park that I could camp in just outside of Canton. From there, tomorrow I would get into Canton, find a motel and a storage space for Penny, so Friday morning I could fly to the wedding in Boston. I had just over 50 miles to go, not a taxing day at all.
Not far out of camp, I got to mile 3800, about 700 miles left to go to get back to Brooklyn. The first town I came to, I stopped for lunch. I found the Farmer Boy Restaurant, sat down and ordered and again plugged in the phone. It can go through a lot of battery in one day. I had my lunch and getting up to leave, one of the three seniors sitting at the table behind me asked if I was a cyclist of just dressed like one. I had the attention of every diner in the smallish room as I told them about my journey. The old man laughed and said he was impressed that young people still challenge themselves like that. He wished me luck as I left.
The day was a bit warmer than yesterday, on the humid side with only a half-hearted breeze. The hills were starting to get more serious, the warnings about what awaited me across the next state line. This was emphasized when I got up almost to 40mph for the first time since the black hills.
Traffic was getting more suburban and in a couple of spots, the shoulder was less ample than I would have liked. I made it down to Portage State Park and started to ride around looking for the camping area. I found the boat ramp, the picnic area, the playground, the beach. No camping area. Finally I asked an old man who I believe was dumpster diving if he knew where I could camp. He gave me directions to the park with the campground, about 7 miles around on the other side of the lake. The hills here seemed steeper and longer than most of the ones before, but at least I found bike lanes around the northern end of the lake.
Here it was pretty obvious where the campsites were. But I wouldn't have gone to the western side of the lake if I had known the campground was on the east. Anyway, I found a site and was soon encamped and making myself dinner. Across from my site was one of two tall tepees that one could rent. There was no way to get Penny inside the door, so I didn't even consider it. But I did go back later and check it out. Surprisingly roomy.
Dinner was some polska kielbsa I had picked up at a gas station an hour earlier. I should have grabbed some bread too, because all that good grease was just going to go to waste. I soaked it all up with a piece of paper towel which I threw into the firepit. That gave me an idea. I gathered some of the dryer sticks laying around and set them up with the paper towel in the center. It was really surprising how well a single oil laden piece of paper towel keeps a flame. Next time I'll try it with newspaper and used cooking grease.
I sat at the table back at my site and was reading as the light started to fade. I looked up and saw a guy on a bike roll by clearly looking for a spot. I jumped onto Penny and was just getting to the roadway when he turned around. He said he had noticed that there wasn't a car at my site and wanted to know if I wanted to split the site with him. Sure! This site was $20 as it was, so I wouldn't mind making back half of that and getting to hang out with a cyclist.
Brett is a resident of Austin, TX, but was currently riding his bike from Rochester NY to Bloomington, IN. He told me about his various long-distance trips he had taken, and I told him about the joys and struggles of my journey. He slung up what was basically a covered hammock among some trees. I wondered how this piece of camping equipment would work in the plains. We ended up talking long after darkness had settled. The next day was going to be the easiest scheduled of my trip and I settled into a comfortable night's sleep.
Day 62, Findley SP, OH - Nimisila Campground, OH
56.4 miles in 4:17:11 for a total of 3854.4 in 290:53:52 and a high speed of 38.1
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Mile 3798.1 - The flat starts to unflatten
I woke up to the sound of farm equipment plodding along in the distance. My tent hidden by sturdy green stalks of corn, somebody would have to be going no more than 10 miles an hour to see me from the road. I ate a quick breakfast from the bag because my goal for the day was over 100 miles away. I wanted to make it to Fidley State Park where I could camp for the night.
After half an hour's ride, I hit mile 3700, 288 hours and 16 minutes worth of saddle time since California. But there's still most of Ohio and all of Pennsylvania ahead of me. A few miles later I came into McComb which is best known for its largest employer, Consolidated Biscuit. The complex stretched along the western end of town and contained buildings capable of everything from processing the whole grain to packaging and shipping the finished products. They make all sorts of packaged cookies and crackers that you quite likely have one of their products in your pantry.
Further down the road I passed through the larger towns of Fostoria and Tiffin. It was soon early afternoon, so I took a longer break at the city park in Republic, watching a tee-ball team practice in a nearby diamond. Passing through small towns and fields, the land began to change. No longer was everything flat and straight, but there were now curves and angles involved too. At highway 61, I came to the first warning that there were mountains in my future. The hill climbed at a 8% pitch for most of a mile. As I took a break at the top, a guy in his car at the stop sign called over to me. He and a buddy had climbed the hill earlier that morning and had a hard time on their lightweight racing bikes. He wanted to know how I got up. I laughed and we talked about the trip for a couple minutes until another car came to a stop behind him.
Going through the town of Greenwich, I saw a truck loaded with furniture that had been backed up to a house. Two men on the back of the truck were handing chairs up to a teenage boy on the second floor balcony. I wanted to take a picture and stop to see how they dealt with the couch, but I didn't.
The hills were starting to get more frequent and there were starting to be more trees on the landscape again. As I was just coming into the foothills of the mountains ahead, the climbs were generally longer than the descents. After spending the warm day heading east I turned north for the last few miles, getting into the shade of the Findley State Park. I wound around to the campground and found a spot among the trees away from the campers and cars.
As dusk fell the trees lit up with dozens of fireflies. Assuming it's not the same group following me, I've probably seen 600-700 fireflies since Minnesota.
Day 61, Leipsic, OH - Findley State Park, OH
105.1 miles in 7:59:10. Now 3798.1 miles in 294:36:41 and a top speed of 28.2
After half an hour's ride, I hit mile 3700, 288 hours and 16 minutes worth of saddle time since California. But there's still most of Ohio and all of Pennsylvania ahead of me. A few miles later I came into McComb which is best known for its largest employer, Consolidated Biscuit. The complex stretched along the western end of town and contained buildings capable of everything from processing the whole grain to packaging and shipping the finished products. They make all sorts of packaged cookies and crackers that you quite likely have one of their products in your pantry.
Further down the road I passed through the larger towns of Fostoria and Tiffin. It was soon early afternoon, so I took a longer break at the city park in Republic, watching a tee-ball team practice in a nearby diamond. Passing through small towns and fields, the land began to change. No longer was everything flat and straight, but there were now curves and angles involved too. At highway 61, I came to the first warning that there were mountains in my future. The hill climbed at a 8% pitch for most of a mile. As I took a break at the top, a guy in his car at the stop sign called over to me. He and a buddy had climbed the hill earlier that morning and had a hard time on their lightweight racing bikes. He wanted to know how I got up. I laughed and we talked about the trip for a couple minutes until another car came to a stop behind him.
Going through the town of Greenwich, I saw a truck loaded with furniture that had been backed up to a house. Two men on the back of the truck were handing chairs up to a teenage boy on the second floor balcony. I wanted to take a picture and stop to see how they dealt with the couch, but I didn't.
The hills were starting to get more frequent and there were starting to be more trees on the landscape again. As I was just coming into the foothills of the mountains ahead, the climbs were generally longer than the descents. After spending the warm day heading east I turned north for the last few miles, getting into the shade of the Findley State Park. I wound around to the campground and found a spot among the trees away from the campers and cars.
As dusk fell the trees lit up with dozens of fireflies. Assuming it's not the same group following me, I've probably seen 600-700 fireflies since Minnesota.
Day 61, Leipsic, OH - Findley State Park, OH
105.1 miles in 7:59:10. Now 3798.1 miles in 294:36:41 and a top speed of 28.2
Monday, June 28, 2010
Mile 3693.0 - The easiest day
On the morning of day 60, I got to see the segment about my trip that had aired on the local Fort Wayne news the night before. The text of the segment can be found here:
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/home/97272464.html
I had spent about 8 minutes talking into the camera and a few more just talking to the reporter. It was pared down to a minute and the one quotation they used is not the one I would have ran with. But, I'm pleased whenever cycling makes the evening news and if it happens to be about me that's fine too.
I hung out with Ben, his stepson and infant daughter and their nanny long enough to get Chik-Fil-A with them. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten Jimmy Johns instead. Oh well. I ended up getting starting a little later than planned, but still early enough to get some serious miles in.
Ben lives just down the street from a golf course that Fort Wayne's River Greenway runs along. Apparently, they had just finished connecting the two long segments of it, and I was impressed. It was smooth and even, connected several parks and was being used. Cyclists, pedestrians with and without strollers and even a couple rollerbladers. I rode it all the way to the end, wishing it continued further. Monroesville? Decatur? You should consider it. Heck, you could follow the river all the way down to St. Marys, OH.
I swung north a few blocks then turned east again on Paulding St. Paulding is a big, important street for it's run through Fort Wayne. But then it crosses over US496 and it becomes less significant. Unpaved for a couple stretches even. I did hit my high speed of 27.1 coming down the 496 overpass. But the road is at least flat and straight without much traffic and I was enjoying a solid tailwind, so I kept up a constant speed around 19 mph on the paved portions. The wheat and corn fields suddenly gave way to a vast private collection of half buried pipes behind a barbed wire fence.
Curving a bit through this complex, I came suddenly to State Line Road. I pulled out my camera for the shot of the Welcome to Ohio sign. As I was lining it up, two cyclists came around the line of trees along the angle of Ohio 500 heading northeast towards Payne. The bikes were loaded, large panniers on front and back wheel under neon yellow rain covers and handlebar bags perched on the front. I held my ground in the entrance of the intersection (though out of the way of the couple cars that came along) and let them come to me. I found out that these were the lead cyclists from a group of 15 going from Maryland to Seattle. They were raising money for the UNC Lineburger Cancer Center and much of the group was 16 year old boys looking to become Eagle Scouts. Their website is www.Cycle20Ten.com and I suggest you check them out and support them if you can.
They were telling me that they were all riding the same model bike and everyone carrying different parts, so that if anything were to go awry on the road, they have the means to fix it. Other than the frame, they could basically assemble a full bike, which is kinda cool. But they confessed that maybe they should have chosen a better model as already they had had some mechanical issues. I bragged about how beastly Penny is. For a steel frame bike that was designed before I was born, she was comfortable and gives me very little trouble.
As I was talking with the front two, three more came around the corner. We talked for some time about the road ahead of them. I was impressed that they were going in such a large group, they were impressed that I was flying solo. Since they were only a couple weeks into it and I was a couple from the end, I told them what to expect from the states I had passed through as far as I could. As I write this from New York, they are just entering Minnesota. Good luck guys!
Standing there talking, the sun seemed to get hotter. They told me that I'd probably run into more of them as I got into Payne, and sure enough as I was coming out of a gas station with my 2 quarts of gatorade, four more of the group pulled up. We talked a few minutes and they complained about their headwind. Their headwind was my tailwind, and I wanted to get back into it before it decided to calm down.
I cruised along this land of straight lines and flat planes. Unlike the vast spaces between places in the west, the towns here are two to six miles apart, though really that's not a quite accurate picture. The towns were where the houses clumped closer together and there was a hardware shop/liquor store. But houses lined much of the road between the towns, and for a long while I felt like I was riding through the remaining farmland outside suburban Chicago. I had to remind myself that Bolingbrook was a couple hundred miles behind me, not three miles ahead.
I took a break at a closed down restaurant/ice cream parlor in Melrose. It at least offered me a bench out of the sun. I took the time to call my parents and tell them about my appearance on tv the night before. Getting up, I rode onward until Leipsic, where it was time for dinner. I came to the three block strip of downtown Leipsic and stopped to ask a larger, older man where in town to eat. 'Nowhere', he replied then pointed to the pizza place in front of us. 'But I'm going in here, it's the best of the lot'.
The pizza place was also a drive through liquor store. After I ordered I found my way to the bar in the back. The bartender had Pawn Stars on the tv and, after serving me, grabbed her dinner that had just come out of the oven and sat by me at the bar to eat. I told her about my trip and she talked about having owned her own pizza place for 12 years before walking away from it. Round turned into round, my pizza having appeared and disappeared, and soon the boys were coming in to watch wrestling on the big screen in the back. The bartender gave me advice on which road to pull down to camp, as that was my plan for the night. County road 5 was full of trucks, even throughout the night, but the next one down, county road 4 had only a few people living on it. Good to know.
The sun was starting to set, so I got back out onto highway 613. I stopped at the gas station at county road 5 to grab more water and gatorade for the morning. The cashier saw my helmet and asked how far I was going. Upon hearing about my trek, he asked if I was hungry and offered to make me a free sandwich. Sure, I'll take a free sandwich. Thanking him, I rode on to the next intersection, county road 4, and turned north along it. I went in maybe 2/3rds of a mile, passing two houses, but not yet coming to the next and I found the perfect spot.
There was a space where clearly two different fields lined up next to each other, though both were planted with corn. Across the street along the same line, a wheat and corn field met up. There was an unplanted gap that extended maybe 80 feet back into the rows of corn and was about 10 feet wide. The corn was tall enough to come over the top of the tent, so when it was pitched and the sun had set, there was no way that the few cars going along would see me. Even as I ate my free sandwich in the brightness of the full moon, I was hidden from the road.
Day 60, Fort Wayne, IN - Cornfield camp east of Leipsic, OH
72.3 miles in 4:21:18 for a total of 3693.0 in 282:45:31 and a top speed of 27.1 mph
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/home/97272464.html
I had spent about 8 minutes talking into the camera and a few more just talking to the reporter. It was pared down to a minute and the one quotation they used is not the one I would have ran with. But, I'm pleased whenever cycling makes the evening news and if it happens to be about me that's fine too.
I hung out with Ben, his stepson and infant daughter and their nanny long enough to get Chik-Fil-A with them. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten Jimmy Johns instead. Oh well. I ended up getting starting a little later than planned, but still early enough to get some serious miles in.
Ben lives just down the street from a golf course that Fort Wayne's River Greenway runs along. Apparently, they had just finished connecting the two long segments of it, and I was impressed. It was smooth and even, connected several parks and was being used. Cyclists, pedestrians with and without strollers and even a couple rollerbladers. I rode it all the way to the end, wishing it continued further. Monroesville? Decatur? You should consider it. Heck, you could follow the river all the way down to St. Marys, OH.
I swung north a few blocks then turned east again on Paulding St. Paulding is a big, important street for it's run through Fort Wayne. But then it crosses over US496 and it becomes less significant. Unpaved for a couple stretches even. I did hit my high speed of 27.1 coming down the 496 overpass. But the road is at least flat and straight without much traffic and I was enjoying a solid tailwind, so I kept up a constant speed around 19 mph on the paved portions. The wheat and corn fields suddenly gave way to a vast private collection of half buried pipes behind a barbed wire fence.
Curving a bit through this complex, I came suddenly to State Line Road. I pulled out my camera for the shot of the Welcome to Ohio sign. As I was lining it up, two cyclists came around the line of trees along the angle of Ohio 500 heading northeast towards Payne. The bikes were loaded, large panniers on front and back wheel under neon yellow rain covers and handlebar bags perched on the front. I held my ground in the entrance of the intersection (though out of the way of the couple cars that came along) and let them come to me. I found out that these were the lead cyclists from a group of 15 going from Maryland to Seattle. They were raising money for the UNC Lineburger Cancer Center and much of the group was 16 year old boys looking to become Eagle Scouts. Their website is www.Cycle20Ten.com and I suggest you check them out and support them if you can.
They were telling me that they were all riding the same model bike and everyone carrying different parts, so that if anything were to go awry on the road, they have the means to fix it. Other than the frame, they could basically assemble a full bike, which is kinda cool. But they confessed that maybe they should have chosen a better model as already they had had some mechanical issues. I bragged about how beastly Penny is. For a steel frame bike that was designed before I was born, she was comfortable and gives me very little trouble.
As I was talking with the front two, three more came around the corner. We talked for some time about the road ahead of them. I was impressed that they were going in such a large group, they were impressed that I was flying solo. Since they were only a couple weeks into it and I was a couple from the end, I told them what to expect from the states I had passed through as far as I could. As I write this from New York, they are just entering Minnesota. Good luck guys!
Standing there talking, the sun seemed to get hotter. They told me that I'd probably run into more of them as I got into Payne, and sure enough as I was coming out of a gas station with my 2 quarts of gatorade, four more of the group pulled up. We talked a few minutes and they complained about their headwind. Their headwind was my tailwind, and I wanted to get back into it before it decided to calm down.
I cruised along this land of straight lines and flat planes. Unlike the vast spaces between places in the west, the towns here are two to six miles apart, though really that's not a quite accurate picture. The towns were where the houses clumped closer together and there was a hardware shop/liquor store. But houses lined much of the road between the towns, and for a long while I felt like I was riding through the remaining farmland outside suburban Chicago. I had to remind myself that Bolingbrook was a couple hundred miles behind me, not three miles ahead.
I took a break at a closed down restaurant/ice cream parlor in Melrose. It at least offered me a bench out of the sun. I took the time to call my parents and tell them about my appearance on tv the night before. Getting up, I rode onward until Leipsic, where it was time for dinner. I came to the three block strip of downtown Leipsic and stopped to ask a larger, older man where in town to eat. 'Nowhere', he replied then pointed to the pizza place in front of us. 'But I'm going in here, it's the best of the lot'.
The pizza place was also a drive through liquor store. After I ordered I found my way to the bar in the back. The bartender had Pawn Stars on the tv and, after serving me, grabbed her dinner that had just come out of the oven and sat by me at the bar to eat. I told her about my trip and she talked about having owned her own pizza place for 12 years before walking away from it. Round turned into round, my pizza having appeared and disappeared, and soon the boys were coming in to watch wrestling on the big screen in the back. The bartender gave me advice on which road to pull down to camp, as that was my plan for the night. County road 5 was full of trucks, even throughout the night, but the next one down, county road 4 had only a few people living on it. Good to know.
The sun was starting to set, so I got back out onto highway 613. I stopped at the gas station at county road 5 to grab more water and gatorade for the morning. The cashier saw my helmet and asked how far I was going. Upon hearing about my trek, he asked if I was hungry and offered to make me a free sandwich. Sure, I'll take a free sandwich. Thanking him, I rode on to the next intersection, county road 4, and turned north along it. I went in maybe 2/3rds of a mile, passing two houses, but not yet coming to the next and I found the perfect spot.
There was a space where clearly two different fields lined up next to each other, though both were planted with corn. Across the street along the same line, a wheat and corn field met up. There was an unplanted gap that extended maybe 80 feet back into the rows of corn and was about 10 feet wide. The corn was tall enough to come over the top of the tent, so when it was pitched and the sun had set, there was no way that the few cars going along would see me. Even as I ate my free sandwich in the brightness of the full moon, I was hidden from the road.
Day 60, Fort Wayne, IN - Cornfield camp east of Leipsic, OH
72.3 miles in 4:21:18 for a total of 3693.0 in 282:45:31 and a top speed of 27.1 mph
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Mile 3620.7 - Cycling in the news, part 2
Day 59 started as a cloudy day in my tent. I was camped in the Bethel Bible Church's yard in rural Indiana, about 7 miles west of Winamac, Indiana. As it was Sunday morning and there was a service at 9:30, I wanted to be sure to be out of there before anyone started arriving. I didn't expect there to be any problems with my being there, as I did get permission to camp from the janitor the night before, but I didn't want to risk being invited in for service and proselytized to for an hour. Breakfast was the remaining reconstituted lasagna from last night and gatorade. Mmm...
I broke camp around 8:00 and knew I had about 90 miles to cover before I got to Fort Wayne. I passed through Winamac, taking the opportunity to both refill my fluids and toss out my trash from the night before. I see plenty of trash along the side of the road, carelessly tossed out by people in cars. It would be easier for me too, if I just didn't care and cast aside my trash wherever it was that I was done with it. But that's not right, it's bad for the land, plants and animals, not to mention just plain ugly. You might not care if you live in a trash can, but I'd prefer not to. So I carry the burden of my waste until it can be disposed of properly. It's really not that hard for me, but clearly too much to ask of some people in cars.
I continued along highway 14 as the sky cleared slightly and the temperature started rising. After the two solid weeks of low to mid 60's I dealt with back in the west, I'm happy to have days in the mid to upper 80's. I'm one of those people who functions much better in hot temperatures than cold. I'm solar powered, I can't help it.
I started the day about 1/3rd of the way across Indiana and I was looking to wind up in Fort Wayne, about 15 miles from the Ohio boarder. I soon came to Rochester and went along the shore of scenic Lake Manitou. At this point, 14 goes southwest and then takes a swing due north for a couple miles. Heading east again after that, I passed through several small towns as the day started to get hot. My water levels started to drop again and it was now getting to be lunch time.
I arrived in the town of South Whitley. Here the highway turns south again to cross the Eel River. I looked north and south to see which seemed to have better options for lunch. Arbitrarily choosing south, I crossed the river and found JD's Riverside Cafe. In the parking lot was a couple who had just emerged from the restaurant and were about to get onto their motorcycles. Immediately, I asked if this was the place to stop for lunch and they emphatically assented. We talked for several minutes, comparing the maintainance needs of bicycles and motorcycles. They informed me that the cafe was owned by a Mexican family and not only was the food good, but the service was the best to be found anywhere in town. I went inside to see for myself.
As I sat down, the chips and salsa and water hit the table. Good start. Looking at the menu, I decided on the Reuben sandwich. Maybe it didn't quite go with the chips and salsa, but whatever. As I was eating my sandwich, the woman who was quite clearly the matron of the family was clearing a table nearby. She looked out the window at Penny, then looked back at me. She asked one of her daughters nearby 'El muchacho venga con bicicleta? De donde?' I both saw the exchange and understood the question, but waited for the girl to translate her mother's question. I responded in English that I had started in San Fransisco and was making my way to New York. She smiled widely and said in broken English that that was fantastic. She seemed really happy to see someone riding a bike so far. She offered to refill any water that I might need before I left.
Finishing my sandwich, I went up to pay my check. One of the daughters looked to her mother and asked how much she should charge me. 'Nada' the mother replied, waving her off. The girl shrugged and said that my lunch was free. I looked at the mother and asked 'Esta seguro?' 'Si, si, si'. Thus, after nearly 3600 miles of riding across the country and telling waiters and restaurant managers about my trip, finally here, in a smallish town in central Indiana, from a woman who spoke very little English, I got my first free meal. I tipped 30% of what the bill would have been, then brought in my water bottles to be refilled. When I next come through South Whitley, Indiana, I will surely eat there again.
As I was getting back onto the bike, I saw on my phone that I had gotten a message from the producer calling me back about a time to meet up with her reporter once I got into Fort Wayne. I called back and told her that I expected to be in town soon and gave her a rough time and location for a reporter to meet me. Continuing on, I got back onto 14 and headed toward the city.
I reached Fort Wayne, and suddenly a bike path appeared alongside the highway. It looked like it had been recently installed or upgraded from a sidewalk. There were a couple other cyclists and pedestrians on it, but it was wide enough that three or four cyclists could comfortably ride abreast. I crossed over interstate 69 and entered the real city. For a while I was elbow to side mirror with the traffic, but soon enough I had gotten to one end of the River Parkway. Checking my phone, I saw I had a message now from the reporter, so I called her back and we decided on a nearby playground to meet.
I crossed a street to Rockhill Park and waited for the reporter to arrive. There was an older man with a metal detector scanning the playground. Finally, the reporter arrived, set up her camera, and started the interview. I talked on camera for about 10 minutes, explaining what I'm doing and why, what I've seen and what I'd like to see in the future. The reporter was suitably impressed and I passed her one of my cards so she could check out my blog. She needed to get back to the studio so she could get this onto the 6:00 news, barely an hour in the future. I wished her good luck as she drove off.
I called Ben and found out where to meet him. As it turns out, he was working on one of the few streets in downtown Fort Wayne that actually has a bike lane. I got to him easily. He is working for a tv production company that creates a lot of commercials. In the studio, there were a couple walls and the floor painted in bright green. We decided to go check out Greekfest that was winding up that evening at a park not far away.
We got down to the park and were disappointed to see that they were packing up already. I was hungry, as usual, and really would have enjoyed some kind of food there. We met up with Ben's housemate and decided to go try to find food. The first place we went to was not open on Sunday. We walked around to a pizza joint a block away, but found the tables all full and the line pretty long. So we walked down to a bar called Henry's and established ourselves at a table in a corner.
A dinner and several beers later, we went back to the studio where Ben had left his car and I had left Penny. We took a couple pictures of me on Penny in front of the greenscreen. Instead of the laborious loading of my bike into the back of his car, I rode behind him to his place a couple miles away. Here again the cruel reality of real estate prices of new york vs the rest of the civilized world hit me like a metaphor. Ben and his housemate share a large three bedroom house with a back yard and blah blah blah and pay pretty much 1/3rd of what I pay for my half of a little Brooklyn condo. We spent a couple hours on his back porch catching up. I was aware that, as I sat there talking, words I had spoken into a camera several hours earlier were now being played on the evening news for an audience of a half a million people in the greater Fort Wayne region.
From Indiana's News Center's website:
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/home/97272464.html
Day 59, Bethel Church Camp, IN - Fort Wayne, IN
93.0 miles in 7:34:24. totals now 3620.7 in 283:24;13 and a top speed of 28.0 mph
I broke camp around 8:00 and knew I had about 90 miles to cover before I got to Fort Wayne. I passed through Winamac, taking the opportunity to both refill my fluids and toss out my trash from the night before. I see plenty of trash along the side of the road, carelessly tossed out by people in cars. It would be easier for me too, if I just didn't care and cast aside my trash wherever it was that I was done with it. But that's not right, it's bad for the land, plants and animals, not to mention just plain ugly. You might not care if you live in a trash can, but I'd prefer not to. So I carry the burden of my waste until it can be disposed of properly. It's really not that hard for me, but clearly too much to ask of some people in cars.
I continued along highway 14 as the sky cleared slightly and the temperature started rising. After the two solid weeks of low to mid 60's I dealt with back in the west, I'm happy to have days in the mid to upper 80's. I'm one of those people who functions much better in hot temperatures than cold. I'm solar powered, I can't help it.
I started the day about 1/3rd of the way across Indiana and I was looking to wind up in Fort Wayne, about 15 miles from the Ohio boarder. I soon came to Rochester and went along the shore of scenic Lake Manitou. At this point, 14 goes southwest and then takes a swing due north for a couple miles. Heading east again after that, I passed through several small towns as the day started to get hot. My water levels started to drop again and it was now getting to be lunch time.
I arrived in the town of South Whitley. Here the highway turns south again to cross the Eel River. I looked north and south to see which seemed to have better options for lunch. Arbitrarily choosing south, I crossed the river and found JD's Riverside Cafe. In the parking lot was a couple who had just emerged from the restaurant and were about to get onto their motorcycles. Immediately, I asked if this was the place to stop for lunch and they emphatically assented. We talked for several minutes, comparing the maintainance needs of bicycles and motorcycles. They informed me that the cafe was owned by a Mexican family and not only was the food good, but the service was the best to be found anywhere in town. I went inside to see for myself.
As I sat down, the chips and salsa and water hit the table. Good start. Looking at the menu, I decided on the Reuben sandwich. Maybe it didn't quite go with the chips and salsa, but whatever. As I was eating my sandwich, the woman who was quite clearly the matron of the family was clearing a table nearby. She looked out the window at Penny, then looked back at me. She asked one of her daughters nearby 'El muchacho venga con bicicleta? De donde?' I both saw the exchange and understood the question, but waited for the girl to translate her mother's question. I responded in English that I had started in San Fransisco and was making my way to New York. She smiled widely and said in broken English that that was fantastic. She seemed really happy to see someone riding a bike so far. She offered to refill any water that I might need before I left.
Finishing my sandwich, I went up to pay my check. One of the daughters looked to her mother and asked how much she should charge me. 'Nada' the mother replied, waving her off. The girl shrugged and said that my lunch was free. I looked at the mother and asked 'Esta seguro?' 'Si, si, si'. Thus, after nearly 3600 miles of riding across the country and telling waiters and restaurant managers about my trip, finally here, in a smallish town in central Indiana, from a woman who spoke very little English, I got my first free meal. I tipped 30% of what the bill would have been, then brought in my water bottles to be refilled. When I next come through South Whitley, Indiana, I will surely eat there again.
As I was getting back onto the bike, I saw on my phone that I had gotten a message from the producer calling me back about a time to meet up with her reporter once I got into Fort Wayne. I called back and told her that I expected to be in town soon and gave her a rough time and location for a reporter to meet me. Continuing on, I got back onto 14 and headed toward the city.
I reached Fort Wayne, and suddenly a bike path appeared alongside the highway. It looked like it had been recently installed or upgraded from a sidewalk. There were a couple other cyclists and pedestrians on it, but it was wide enough that three or four cyclists could comfortably ride abreast. I crossed over interstate 69 and entered the real city. For a while I was elbow to side mirror with the traffic, but soon enough I had gotten to one end of the River Parkway. Checking my phone, I saw I had a message now from the reporter, so I called her back and we decided on a nearby playground to meet.
I crossed a street to Rockhill Park and waited for the reporter to arrive. There was an older man with a metal detector scanning the playground. Finally, the reporter arrived, set up her camera, and started the interview. I talked on camera for about 10 minutes, explaining what I'm doing and why, what I've seen and what I'd like to see in the future. The reporter was suitably impressed and I passed her one of my cards so she could check out my blog. She needed to get back to the studio so she could get this onto the 6:00 news, barely an hour in the future. I wished her good luck as she drove off.
I called Ben and found out where to meet him. As it turns out, he was working on one of the few streets in downtown Fort Wayne that actually has a bike lane. I got to him easily. He is working for a tv production company that creates a lot of commercials. In the studio, there were a couple walls and the floor painted in bright green. We decided to go check out Greekfest that was winding up that evening at a park not far away.
We got down to the park and were disappointed to see that they were packing up already. I was hungry, as usual, and really would have enjoyed some kind of food there. We met up with Ben's housemate and decided to go try to find food. The first place we went to was not open on Sunday. We walked around to a pizza joint a block away, but found the tables all full and the line pretty long. So we walked down to a bar called Henry's and established ourselves at a table in a corner.
A dinner and several beers later, we went back to the studio where Ben had left his car and I had left Penny. We took a couple pictures of me on Penny in front of the greenscreen. Instead of the laborious loading of my bike into the back of his car, I rode behind him to his place a couple miles away. Here again the cruel reality of real estate prices of new york vs the rest of the civilized world hit me like a metaphor. Ben and his housemate share a large three bedroom house with a back yard and blah blah blah and pay pretty much 1/3rd of what I pay for my half of a little Brooklyn condo. We spent a couple hours on his back porch catching up. I was aware that, as I sat there talking, words I had spoken into a camera several hours earlier were now being played on the evening news for an audience of a half a million people in the greater Fort Wayne region.
From Indiana's News Center's website:
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/home/97272464.html
Day 59, Bethel Church Camp, IN - Fort Wayne, IN
93.0 miles in 7:34:24. totals now 3620.7 in 283:24;13 and a top speed of 28.0 mph
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Mile 3527.2 - Advancing east again.
It has now been 58 days since I left the fictional city of San Franclisco. Beautiful, metropolitan San Franclisco. My intention was to leave Steve's place after breakfast and try to get as far across Indiana as possible. Well, that soon turned into going to watch the local girls' softball all-star team play another playoff caliber team. After that we had to get ice cream, and this turned into that and it was soon 2:00 and I hadn't even packed up yet.
Finally I got everything together and loaded up Penny again. Once again, I felt the mixed pangs of wanting to stay with my friends longer and relax in comfort and the desire to draw myself ever closer to home. Once again, the road won. I talked to my friend Ben, with whom I would stay in Fort Wayne, near the Ohio border. Ben had contacted someone he knew at the local news station. I got a call from one of the producers who wanted to set up a time when I would be in Fort Wayne that I could be interviewed about my trip. I gave her a tentative time that I though I would make it, but said it would be best to contact me Sunday morning, when I'll have a better idea of when I'd hit the city 180 miles away.
Headed down the shaded but nearly shoulderless rural Illinois highway, I go south then swing east. It takes less than two and a half hours for me to traverse the 41 miles between Wilmington and the Indiana boarder. Again at this state line, there is no grand sign welcoming me to this most virtuous of states, just a small green rectangle notifying me of the county I was entering. Shrug. Maybe Indiana isn't the most virtuous state. The shoulder was only a couple feet wide here, and the heavy truck traffic picked up.
After a couple dozen miles of this, I turned off onto a single lane road that shot between corn fields. Going down the nearly empty road without shoulders, I took a break at a small bridge over a creek. Looking at the time and the map, I wanted to cover another 30 miles to get to the Tippecanoe State Park, where I could camp. At this point though, it is already after 7:00 and in less than two hours it will be dark. I quickly ate and then set out again.
I passed through more fields and small towns, covering miles, but not quite keeping the pace that I would need to make it to the park. There were a number of farmhouses I passed where I suddenly found myself being chased by dogs. None of them ended up catching me. As the sun set, I was still nearly 10 miles away from the park. Eventually, I saw a brightly lit sign in the distance that at first I took for a restaurant. As I had not had a real meal since breakfast, I thought that I should get a bite then continue in the dark to the park. As I got to it though, I could see that this structure was a church. Despite being 9pm on a Saturday, I could see that there were lights on in the building. I went around, trying to see if there was an unlocked door, and when I came around to the back, I found a janitor who was taking the trash out. I asked if it would be a problem for me to set up camp in a corner of the yard somewhere. He nodded and said it would be fine, so I set up off the back of the unpaved parking lot, between a small playground and the fence marking the boundary of a cornfield.
I sprayed myself down with insect repellent and pulled out one of my freeze-dried backpacker meals. Just add 2 cups of boiling water and wait 13 minutes and the food miraculously reconstituted itself into something that tasted more or less like the lasagna it promised. It was nice to have a hearty, hot meal and watch the fireflies flicker in the expanding darkness. There were sounds of fireworks in the distance, though I was never able to see any.
Day 58, Wilmington, IL - Bethel Churchyard Camp, West of Winamac, IN
92.2 miles in 6:53:47. Totals: 3527.7 miles in 276:51:49 and a high speed of 25.0 mph
Finally I got everything together and loaded up Penny again. Once again, I felt the mixed pangs of wanting to stay with my friends longer and relax in comfort and the desire to draw myself ever closer to home. Once again, the road won. I talked to my friend Ben, with whom I would stay in Fort Wayne, near the Ohio border. Ben had contacted someone he knew at the local news station. I got a call from one of the producers who wanted to set up a time when I would be in Fort Wayne that I could be interviewed about my trip. I gave her a tentative time that I though I would make it, but said it would be best to contact me Sunday morning, when I'll have a better idea of when I'd hit the city 180 miles away.
Headed down the shaded but nearly shoulderless rural Illinois highway, I go south then swing east. It takes less than two and a half hours for me to traverse the 41 miles between Wilmington and the Indiana boarder. Again at this state line, there is no grand sign welcoming me to this most virtuous of states, just a small green rectangle notifying me of the county I was entering. Shrug. Maybe Indiana isn't the most virtuous state. The shoulder was only a couple feet wide here, and the heavy truck traffic picked up.
After a couple dozen miles of this, I turned off onto a single lane road that shot between corn fields. Going down the nearly empty road without shoulders, I took a break at a small bridge over a creek. Looking at the time and the map, I wanted to cover another 30 miles to get to the Tippecanoe State Park, where I could camp. At this point though, it is already after 7:00 and in less than two hours it will be dark. I quickly ate and then set out again.
I passed through more fields and small towns, covering miles, but not quite keeping the pace that I would need to make it to the park. There were a number of farmhouses I passed where I suddenly found myself being chased by dogs. None of them ended up catching me. As the sun set, I was still nearly 10 miles away from the park. Eventually, I saw a brightly lit sign in the distance that at first I took for a restaurant. As I had not had a real meal since breakfast, I thought that I should get a bite then continue in the dark to the park. As I got to it though, I could see that this structure was a church. Despite being 9pm on a Saturday, I could see that there were lights on in the building. I went around, trying to see if there was an unlocked door, and when I came around to the back, I found a janitor who was taking the trash out. I asked if it would be a problem for me to set up camp in a corner of the yard somewhere. He nodded and said it would be fine, so I set up off the back of the unpaved parking lot, between a small playground and the fence marking the boundary of a cornfield.
I sprayed myself down with insect repellent and pulled out one of my freeze-dried backpacker meals. Just add 2 cups of boiling water and wait 13 minutes and the food miraculously reconstituted itself into something that tasted more or less like the lasagna it promised. It was nice to have a hearty, hot meal and watch the fireflies flicker in the expanding darkness. There were sounds of fireworks in the distance, though I was never able to see any.
Day 58, Wilmington, IL - Bethel Churchyard Camp, West of Winamac, IN
92.2 miles in 6:53:47. Totals: 3527.7 miles in 276:51:49 and a high speed of 25.0 mph
Friday, June 25, 2010
Mile 3435.5 - A little further down the line
Day 57 started with too little sleep. Mom wanted to have breakfast with me before she had to start work, so we went out to Dean's Cafe, near my mom's work. Breakfast was good, but I wouldn't have minded another hour of sleep. It's hard to get sleep in that house. My older brother drove me back to my parents' place where I packed up and loaded the bike. It was good to get back on the road.
I started on the Lily Cache Bike Trail, took the connecting trial past the new high school out to the Remington sports complex. From there I took Vetran's Parkway out to Romeoville. I pulled up in front of RC Hill, the elementary school I attended from 2-5th grades. As I came up to the main doors, the odometer on my gps hit 3400 miles. I had noticed that my tires needed more air, so I stopped at one of the gas stations nearby. The compressed air machine wanted a dollar in quarters, so I went in to get change. The station attendant nicely offered to just turn the air machine on for me. That was great. I'll prefer my air to be free.
A couple miles from my old school is the Illinois and Michigan canal. This canal was historically significant as it was the link that connected the Atlantic through the great lakes to the Mississippi river and thus the Gulf of Mexico. For the first time, goods from new england could cheaply be shipped to the midwest and south. Though supplanted by the railroads within 50 years of its completion, the I & M Canal is largely responsible for making an obscure town called Chicago into one of the world's great cities. Though the canal and it's locks no longer ship goods, there is a bike trail that follows the old towpath from Romeoville 68 miles south to the Illinois River at Peru. I wasn't going that far today, though at some point, I would like to take it from end to end. I took it instead only as far as Joliet, The City of Steel and Stone.
Coming into Joliet, I passed the ruins of what was once one of the greatest foundries in North America. Massive masonry skeletons remain of the once huge complex. I poked around a little in one of the former smelting plants, a building as long as a football stadium. I the crossed into the bulk of the city. Coming into downtown Joliet, I passed the Rialto Theater, site of several field trips in grade school. The next block beyond the theater was closed to auto traffic for a farmers' market. I stopped at one booth to get some cherries. Mmm, cherries.
After a slight misdirection caused by the need to detour around the rest of the farmers' market, I came to the southeastern corner of the city and picked up the Wauponosee Glacial Trail. This is yet another former rail line turned into a recreational trail. I passed through farmland and prairies. At one point there was a marker noting that the regular hills to the west were not natural hills, but storehouses from the old Joliet munitions plant. Much of the prairie land there was turned into farmland, and only in the last couple decades has interest grown enough to try to recover some of this lost grassland.
There was one point, in the town of Manhattan, that the trail actually passes the local railroad station. If I lived in Manhattan and worked in Chicago or Joliet, I would not need a car. I would be able to ride my bike to the train in the morning and in the evening, get to enjoy the picturesque scenery of the trail on the ride home. Much better than sitting in traffic on 55.
A little further down the trail, I stopped to take a break on a bench and watch a farmer plow his field in the warm sun.
Eventually I hit Kahler Rd, and swung left to get into Wilmington. In Wilmington is Steve, one of my best friends growing up. Steve was waiting out on his porch with his father who had come by to spend time with his grandchildren. Actually, just his grandson Gavin, as Chloe, Steve's daughter, was away at a slumber party at a friend's place. That's too bad because I was looking forward to seeing Chloe again. Steve's brother Matt was also there, and I arrived near the beginning of the Cubs-White Sox game. The Cubs didn't do so well in the game.
They asked what I wanted to do, and I expressed interest in going to a Joliet Jackhammers game, as they were in town tonight. Matt managed to score free tickets with a single phone call. This is now the secons game Matt has gotten me into for free, the other being rooftop seats at Wrigley last summer. The game was ok, then we got back and stayed up pretty late with his wife Kristina, Gavin and Matt playing Guitar Hero. It was a good afternoon spent with good friends, yet when I went to bed, I could hear the road calling me.
Day 57, Bolingbrook, IL - Wilmington, IL
40.82 miles in 3:37:41. Now a total of 3435.52 miles in 267:58:02 and a high speed of 30.2 mph.
I started on the Lily Cache Bike Trail, took the connecting trial past the new high school out to the Remington sports complex. From there I took Vetran's Parkway out to Romeoville. I pulled up in front of RC Hill, the elementary school I attended from 2-5th grades. As I came up to the main doors, the odometer on my gps hit 3400 miles. I had noticed that my tires needed more air, so I stopped at one of the gas stations nearby. The compressed air machine wanted a dollar in quarters, so I went in to get change. The station attendant nicely offered to just turn the air machine on for me. That was great. I'll prefer my air to be free.
A couple miles from my old school is the Illinois and Michigan canal. This canal was historically significant as it was the link that connected the Atlantic through the great lakes to the Mississippi river and thus the Gulf of Mexico. For the first time, goods from new england could cheaply be shipped to the midwest and south. Though supplanted by the railroads within 50 years of its completion, the I & M Canal is largely responsible for making an obscure town called Chicago into one of the world's great cities. Though the canal and it's locks no longer ship goods, there is a bike trail that follows the old towpath from Romeoville 68 miles south to the Illinois River at Peru. I wasn't going that far today, though at some point, I would like to take it from end to end. I took it instead only as far as Joliet, The City of Steel and Stone.
Coming into Joliet, I passed the ruins of what was once one of the greatest foundries in North America. Massive masonry skeletons remain of the once huge complex. I poked around a little in one of the former smelting plants, a building as long as a football stadium. I the crossed into the bulk of the city. Coming into downtown Joliet, I passed the Rialto Theater, site of several field trips in grade school. The next block beyond the theater was closed to auto traffic for a farmers' market. I stopped at one booth to get some cherries. Mmm, cherries.
After a slight misdirection caused by the need to detour around the rest of the farmers' market, I came to the southeastern corner of the city and picked up the Wauponosee Glacial Trail. This is yet another former rail line turned into a recreational trail. I passed through farmland and prairies. At one point there was a marker noting that the regular hills to the west were not natural hills, but storehouses from the old Joliet munitions plant. Much of the prairie land there was turned into farmland, and only in the last couple decades has interest grown enough to try to recover some of this lost grassland.
There was one point, in the town of Manhattan, that the trail actually passes the local railroad station. If I lived in Manhattan and worked in Chicago or Joliet, I would not need a car. I would be able to ride my bike to the train in the morning and in the evening, get to enjoy the picturesque scenery of the trail on the ride home. Much better than sitting in traffic on 55.
A little further down the trail, I stopped to take a break on a bench and watch a farmer plow his field in the warm sun.
Eventually I hit Kahler Rd, and swung left to get into Wilmington. In Wilmington is Steve, one of my best friends growing up. Steve was waiting out on his porch with his father who had come by to spend time with his grandchildren. Actually, just his grandson Gavin, as Chloe, Steve's daughter, was away at a slumber party at a friend's place. That's too bad because I was looking forward to seeing Chloe again. Steve's brother Matt was also there, and I arrived near the beginning of the Cubs-White Sox game. The Cubs didn't do so well in the game.
They asked what I wanted to do, and I expressed interest in going to a Joliet Jackhammers game, as they were in town tonight. Matt managed to score free tickets with a single phone call. This is now the secons game Matt has gotten me into for free, the other being rooftop seats at Wrigley last summer. The game was ok, then we got back and stayed up pretty late with his wife Kristina, Gavin and Matt playing Guitar Hero. It was a good afternoon spent with good friends, yet when I went to bed, I could hear the road calling me.
Day 57, Bolingbrook, IL - Wilmington, IL
40.82 miles in 3:37:41. Now a total of 3435.52 miles in 267:58:02 and a high speed of 30.2 mph.
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